Emma takes the IELTS!

Hello, everyone. Today is a very big day. I am taking the IELTS test. Hello,

everyone. My name is Emma, and I am very excited to talk about the topic of this

video. What I'm going to talk about today is my experience taking the IELTS

test. That's right, I actually took the IELTS test. So, in this video, I'm going

to talk about: Why I took the IELTS test, I'm going to talk about my own

experiences using the strategies and tips that I've taught in previous

videos, I'm going to talk about what surprised me about the IELTS, I'm going

to talk about some of the changes I noticed, and I'm going to talk about

what I personally found to be the most difficult part of the test.

So, let's get started by talking about: What is the IELTS? Okay? You probably

have heard of this test before. The IELTS is an English test. It's one of

the most popular English tests in the world. People take the IELTS when they

want to immigrate to countries, like Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand.

So, the IELTS is a test people take for immigration purposes. Some people take

the IELTS because they want to go to a university, a college, or maybe take

some sort of academic program; and you need to take the IELTS to get accepted

into the program. Some people take the IELTS just for their job. So, for me, I

wasn't immigrating, I've finished university, and I guess I took the IELTS

sort of for my job. I'm a teacher, and I teach courses on the IELTS. So, why did

I take the IELTS? Well, I'll tell you in three reasons. First of all, I wanted to

know: "Has the IELTS changed?" I've been teaching the IELTS for many years, and

so I wanted to know: "How has it changed? Are there any differences from

when I first started teaching the IELTS?" I wanted to also test my own

strategies. I know this test really well, and I have strategies for doing

the listening, the reading, the writing, and the speaking parts of the test, so I

wanted to know: "Do these strategies work? And how well do they work? Which

strategies are the best strategies, and which ones are okay, but maybe not as

helpful?" I also believe that people should live by the advice they give. I

give students advice on the IELTS, so I wanted to live my own advice. So, it was

important to me to put myself in my students' position to see what it is

like taking this test, because it's a very stressful test. So, I took the

IELTS. Let me tell you about what happened before I took the test, what

happened during the test, and what happened after the test.

As many of you know, tomorrow, I am taking the IELTS. So, what I wanted to

do tonight... It's the night before the IELTS, so I wanted to tell you what I am

doing to prepare and what I am not going to do tonight. So, the first thing I am

doing to prepare is I'm organizing myself. I have, here, my little

briefcase. In it, I have my identification. You need to bring

identification to the IELTS. I have my pencils, my pencil sharpener, my eraser.

I also have in here, I've printed off an example of the timetable, so I know what

time the reading part of the IELTS happens, what time the speaking part

happens, the listening part, and the writing part. One thing, for example, is

there are no breaks in the morning. So, the test in the morning is three hours

without a break. That means before the test, everyone should use the bathroom

and prepare themselves. I also reviewed... I don't know if you can see

this, but I also reviewed the test format. Okay? This is important to know.

It's good to know how long you have for each task, because you are responsible

for organizing your time on the IELTS. Okay? So, you have, for example, 60

minutes to read three different passages and to answer questions, but you decide

how much time you spend on each passage and on how much time you spend answering

questions. So, it's important to know the timetable for tomorrow. So, I've

packed.

Another thing I will be doing tonight is I'm going to get a good night's sleep —

fingers crossed. I think that it is very important to get a good night's sleep

before any test. So, today, I have not had a lot of coffee or tea, and I plan

to go to sleep early. The last thing I'm doing tonight is I am creating my plan

for tomorrow. What do I mean by that? Well, the test is very early in the

morning, so I'm making sure I have three different alarm clocks ready to go so I

don't miss it. I'm checking bus schedules to make sure I can make it on

time. I'm getting my breakfast ready, so I can eat it immediately in the morning,

and I'm also planning on when I leave. The other thing I'm looking for is:

Where are the coffee shops in the area of the test center? For me, I love

coffee, especially for a test. I always drink coffee before a test — that's my

little ritual. So, I'm making sure I know where there is a coffee shop close

to the testing center. Here is what I am not going to do: I am not going to cram

for the test. Do you remember the word: "cram"? "Cram" means to study in a short

Hello, everybody. Today is a very big day. I am taking the IELTS test. So,

amount of time, but to really study hard. So, some people cram the night

before the test. This means they study very hard the night before the test. I'm

not going to do that; I don't think it's helpful to my brain. I think it's better

before I go in to take the test, I just want to let you know how I'm feeling and

to relax. I'm not going to pull an all-nighter tonight. Some people stay up

all night to study before a test. This is a terrible idea, and it's something I

just talk a little bit about that. So, I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday.

will not do tonight. So, there you have it — my plans the night before the

IELTS.

Okay. So, the thing you need to know about the IELTS is: Even if you speak

Some of you, I talked to you yesterday and I told you I was feeling a little

English fluently, you really need to know the test because there are things

on the test that — if you're not prepared for — can be quite difficult;

bit nervous. But now that I've had a good night's sleep, I've had good

even for a native speaker. So, the best thing to do is to do practice tests

before you take the IELTS. I took practice tests and this really, really

practice — I feel a lot more prepared. Some of you might wonder: "Did you study

helped me during the actual IELTS test. So, first thing I did many practice

tests, I learned the structure of the IELTS; I practiced the listening, the

last night? Did you cram for the test?" The answer is: No. I think before a test

writing, the reading parts, and the speaking; and I found that very helpful.

The night before the IELTS, I did not cram. Sometimes when you have a test,

the best thing to do is get a good night's sleep. Do I have any regrets on

you feel like studying late into the night. This is actually a bad idea; your

body and your brain need to sleep before you take a test. The best thing you can

how I prepared for the test? The answer is: Yes. I wish I had spent more time

do before the IELTS is get a good night's sleep. So, was I nervous the

night before? I actually was a little bit nervous. I wanted to get the top

preparing. The IELTS is a tricky test. It has all levels of English, including

score across the writing, the speaking, the listening, and the reading

components. Remember: The IELTS tests all levels of English; it tests beginner

the expert level, so I do wish I spent more time preparing this time. So, here

English, all the way up to expert levels of English. So, it's not a pass or a

fail test. Different people need different scores, depending on their

goals. Some people might want a score of a seven for immigration, or an eight for

is my plan for today. For the writing component, I'm going to make sure I

university — it really depends. For me, I wanted a score... the top score across

all categories, so I was nervous because I was trying for a very high score and

create an outline before I start to write. The reason is: You get marked on

it is a difficult test. So, I was nervous. What did I do to help with my

nervousness? Well, the night before, I packed all my pencils, my eraser, my...

organization, so it's a good idea to know what you are writing and where your

my sharpener. I figured out where the test center was. I made sure that I was

prepared for the actual test day. I also reviewed the structure of the test. So,

writing is going. This can help you make sure you have an introduction,

I looked at: "Okay. What happens first? What happens second? What happens third?

arguments, as well as supporting details for those arguments, and a conclusion.

What happens fourth?" That really helps me when it comes to stress; just knowing

what the day is going to look like. I made sure I had any forms I needed

prepared. I had my passport packed and ready to go. I set three alarm clocks,

In terms of reading, one thing I need to do is I need to remember to use my time

because I am terrified of sleeping in. So... and I made sure that they were all

on AM and not PM. So, I really made sure that I was ready to go the night... the

wisely. You have 60 minutes, and three different things to read. You have to

next day.

answer questions for those three different passages. So, I need to make

sure I allocate my time correctly. In terms of the listening, what do I need

to remember? To read the instructions carefully. Sometimes there are

instructions that say things, like: "Do not write more than two words" — I need

to remember to read the instructions, so I don't write too much or too little.

Finally with the speaking, two things I'm going to focus on is smiling. When

you smile, you feel a little bit less nervous, and you tend to have a better

connection with the person you're talking to. And I guess that's the main

thing, and just focusing on my body language; making sure that I'm breathing

okay. I tend to speak very quickly when I'm nervous, so I'm going to make sure

that I slow my speech; not so it's very slow, but just so I sound calm and I

have a good rate of speaking. So, that is how I am planning to tackle the IELTS

today. Wish me luck.

So, I woke up early, and I went to the exam center very early. It's a really

good thing I did, because my subway was... or the subway, there were

problems at the subway. So, the trains were very, very late. So, if I hadn't

have left my house early, it would have been very stressful. So, because I went

early, this was not a problem for me. So, it's very important to go a little

bit early. I saw people come into the test, you know, at the very last minute,

and they looked so stressed out, so you don't want to be that person. Go early.

While I was on the subway, I made my own plan. So, I thought about: "Okay, what

is one thing that will help me for the listening component? What's one thing to

really think about?" For me, that was: Read the instructions carefully. The

listening component often has instructions, like: "In your answer, use

three words or less." If you use more than three words, you lose marks. So, it

was really important for me to pay attention to the instructions because

even if I wrote the correct answer, if I didn't follow the instructions, I could

still get an incorrect... I could still get an answer wrong. So, that's what my

plan was for the listening: Read the instructions carefully. For the reading,

I thought about it and I thought: "Okay, I'm going to skim and scan." Those are

the two strategies I'm really going to use on this test. I'll talk a little bit

about those strategies in a moment. For the writing, my plan was to make an

outline. When you start writing, a lot of people feel stressed; they look at

the time and they just start immediately writing about the topic. It's a way

better idea to take a moment, breathe, and create a plan, think about what you

want to say, plan it out, make an outline, and then start. So, I knew

that's what I'm going to do for the writing. For the speaking, the number

one thing I could think of was: I'm going to smile. When you smile, you seem

more confident, it helps you with your own nervousness, and it can actually

really help your English improve surprisingly enough. When you're less

nervous, your English tends to be a bit better. So, these were the four things I

was planning on doing during the test.

So, I got to the test early, and I was one of the first people seated in the

room, and then I had 45 minutes to wait in the room before the test actually

started. There's nothing to do in the room; you are just sitting there waiting

for the test. You can't have your phone, you can't have notes, you can't have

anything, so you're just sitting there for, you know, 30-45 minutes and that

can be really, really tough. Especially if you are thinking about the test and

you're nervous about it, because then you have 45 minutes to make yourself

more nervous. So, what was really important was learning how to manage my

stress before the test. So, during those 45 minutes, what did I do? Well, one, I

went over my plan: "Okay. How am I going to tackle this test?" Number two, I did

some breathing exercises. So, I would breathe in through my nose for four

seconds, hold; and then breathe out for eight seconds. That always calms me

down. I also flex my muscles. I went through each finger, you know, flexing

each finger, flexing my toes, my legs — that also helped reduce stress. So, you

don't want to be inside the room too early, because then you have to wait a

very long time, but you want to be early enough. And you want to have a plan on:

How you are going to deal with stress when you're just waiting for things to

begin? So, that is what I did before the test started. Now, I'm going to tell you

what happened during the test.

Okay. So, let me tell you about the IELTS. I have just finished the

listening part, the reading part, and the writing part. It was, in total,

about three hours. Now, I am waiting to do the speaking part. What I found very

helpful was using the strategies that I teach. So, for the reading, this meant

being very careful with the time; for the writing, it meant has been actually

writing an outline in advance; and for the listening component, this meant

reading very carefully the instructions and really paying attention to the

grammar of the answers, as well as any instructions. Sometimes they say: "No

more than three words; only one word", so really focusing on that really hard.

Out of the three tasks I did this morning, I actually found the listening

the most difficult, personally. And that's because I found writing,

listening, and paying attention challenging to do all at once. It's a

lot of multitasking. I think that's actually probably one of my weaknesses.

So, the test begins. What is the first thing you're going to have to do? You're

going to have to do the listening component. This was actually the hardest

part of the test for me, and I'm going to explain why in a little bit. But I

actually found the listening component of the IELTS a little bit tricky. First

of all, they use different accents in the listening. So, you might need to

listen to somebody with an English accent, or somebody with an Australian

accent. So, even if you are a native speaker of English, you might not be

used to listening to other accents. You might hear words that you're a little

unfamiliar with, because they're not common in your own dialect. So, it's

really important for anyone taking the IELTS to listen to different accents

while they're preparing for the test. So, that was one thing I noticed: It was

a little challenging to listen to the different accents. Number two, like I

said before, you really need to know and pay attention to the instructions of the

listening. It's very easy to lose marks over stupid things, like, you know,

having too many words in your answer, so you really want to read the instructions

carefully. And you really need to look at the test and see what you're

listening for as well.

This brings me also to my next point: Practice tests are so important, because

they will help you with the stress that happens during the actual test. Because

I had done so many practice tests, there were times where I didn't understand the

instructions or hear the instructions properly — I was distracted; I missed

something — but because I had done so many practice tests, I could guess what

I needed to do, and so I was able to do it. So, some of the times I actually was

distracted and didn't hear the instruction, but I was still able to do

well on the test, because I had done so many practice ones before. So, that's

why practice tests are important. My next point was: You need to answer

everything; even if you don't know the answer — guess. Guess based on what...

you know, based on context. Take a guess because you will not lose marks if

you... if you guess and you get something incorrect. Okay? So, what I

mean is: You don't... you're not docked marks for guessing. So, it's okay to

guess. I highly recommend guessing. There were actually three parts, three

questions where I missed what they had actually said, so I had to guess three

times on the IELTS. And I'm really happy I did, because I think I made some

really good guesses to what the answers were.

You need to check your answers for spelling mistakes, as well as grammar

mistakes. In terms of grammar, you... maybe something is plural, you might

need to add an "s". At the end of the test, you have ten minutes to check over

your answers and to write them on a different form. So, you have ten

answers... Or, sorry — ten minutes. During that time, make sure that you pay

close attention to your spelling and your grammar. My next point: Keep going.

So, I said there were three... three questions I missed during the IELTS

during the listening part. It goes really fast, and you're actually doing

three things at once — you're listening, you're writing, and you're reading

questions as well. So, during the test, somebody started shuffling papers and I

got a little distracted with that, so I missed one of the words they said. And

because you only get one chance to listen — if you miss something, you

can't go back — that's it. It's very easy when you miss something, to think:

"Oh, no. I missed that. What was it?" And to really focus on it. But because

the test keeps going, you don't have time to do that. So, if you miss an

answer — that's okay, keep going; and after, take your best guess. That's my

recommendation. Like I said, multitasking is a very important

component of the listening. You're reading the questions, you're listening

to different conversations, and then you are writing down the answers. So, that's

really tough; you're doing three things at once.

So, I'm actually a person who has hearing loss, so it's actually difficult

for me sometimes to listen when people are talking fast or when there's a lot

of things going on. So, if I were to take the IELTS again, because of my

hearing loss, I would ask for an accommodation. If you have some sort of

disability — maybe you have a learning disability, and you need, I don't know,

more time; maybe you have a visual disability or a hearing disability —

check to see if you can have an accommodation. They might be able to put

you in a separate room from everyone, so then you have less things distracting

you. There might be different things they can do for you. But if I were to do

the test again, because of my hearing loss, I would definitely do

accommodations because when the other people in the test were shuffling their

papers, I found that so distracting; it was really hard to keep focused on the

actual listening. So, for me, the listening was the hardest part, but I

think I still did really well. Now, let's talk about the reading part of the

test.

My favourite part of the test was the reading. I found that to be very clear.

No issues there. So, I'll let you know how the speaking goes. Okay. So, now,

I'm going to talk about the reading part of the IELTS and my experiences with it.

Out of all of the parts of the IELTS, I actually felt the most comfortable with

the reading component. I thought it went really well, and I think part of the

reason why is because of the strategies I used. So, the first strategy I used

was "skimming". What this means is that you quickly read the whole passage, just

for the main ideas. So, you're not... if there's a word you don't know — that's

okay — you move on. You read as quickly as you can, just to get the main idea of

what the reading is about. So, this is the first thing I did with the reading

passage. I also looked at the title, looked at the pictures kind of, to help

me get a sense of what the whole article was about. After that, I went to the

questions. I would read a question, think... I would underline anything that

they were asking me to do, and then I would go back to the reading, and I

would scan for the answer. So, "scan" means you're looking for specific

information; you're not reading everything — you're just quickly looking

for keywords; and once you find that keyword, you read to see if it has the

information in the answer you're looking for. So, for example, one of the

questions might be where you need to find somebody's name and what they said

about something. So, I'd look up the guy's name, and then I'd quickly scan...

scan to see the name in the passage. And once I found that, I was able to find

the information I needed. So, "skimming" and "scanning" are critical skills for

the IELTS. I finished the reading very early; in part, because I'm a native

speaker of English and I read a lot, but also because I used the skimming and the

scanning strategies. I think that's what really made the reading a lot easier to do.

One thing about the reading is you have 60 minutes, and there are three

different passages you need to read, so... and questions for each of those

passages. You decide how long you spend on each part. It's very important to

manage your time carefully, because you want to make sure you have time for all

three passages. So, that's about 20 minutes for... per passage; give or take

a couple minutes. So, be aware of the time. Make sure you're not spending too

much time on any one passage. And if you run out of time — guess. A lot of the

questions have letters where you have to write the correct letter: "A", "B", "C",

"D" — that sort of thing, or you might have to write: "True", "False", "Not

Given". If you run out of time, just quickly write: "T", "T", "T", "T", "T".

Okay? Or whatever letter seems appropriate. The... Always guess if you

don't know, because you will not lose marks for guessing. Check your answers

carefully, if you have time. I went through each of my answers to make sure

that they were correct, and I'm glad I did because even though I knew the

answer, sometimes I accidentally wrote the wrong letter, so I made some

corrections. The other thing is, just like with the listening, you really need

to read the instructions for the reading carefully. There might be instructions,

like, you know: "Use two words or less in your answer." If you use more than

two words, you're going to lose marks, so it's important to really follow the

instructions carefully. At the end of the reading, you have about ten minutes

to make... to check your answers and to make sure that you filled in everything

okay, so make sure you do that — take advantage of that time. Okay. So, that's

everything about the reading. Now, let's talk about the writing part of the

Okay. So, the writing part. The writing part of the IELTS went exactly how I

predicted it would go. The question I got... or the two questions — you have

two things you have to write about — were pretty much exactly what I saw in

practice tests. My question for this... the essay question was about education

and team sports, so it wasn't really surprising. I've seen really similar

questions about education or how to teach children certain skills. So, if

you do practice tests, I think you will be better prepared to answer the types

of questions you will see on the writing part of the IELTS. I told you before

IELTS.

that my plan was to create an outline of what I was going to write — I did this

and it helped me enormously. I spent maybe five minutes thinking about what

to write for task one and organizing my ideas; and then I also spent, you know,

a couple of minutes organizing my thoughts for task two. I just wrote

something like this on a piece of paper; I just wrote: "Okay, I need an

introduction. Here's my first point, my second point, and my third point. Here's

my conclusion." Just having this really organized my writing. And you're going

to be marked on organization, so it's really important to take some time to

think about how you're going to organize your essay.

I actually did the second essay first. The reason is the... so, there's two

essays — the first one is shorter, the second one is longer, and you get more

marks on the second one. So, to me, it was more important to do well on the

second essay; spend more time on it, more focus, and then to go back to the

first. I recommend this because I think that a lot of students or a lot of

people taking the IELTS — they spend way too much time on task one, when what

they really should be spending most of their time on is task two. So, I

recommend just going straight to task two, writing that essay, and then going

back to task one. You really need to read the essay questions carefully.

You're marked on whether you're able to do what they ask. Do you answer their

question? And a lot of students or a lot of people who take the IELTS, they end

up writing about something a little bit different. So, it's really important to

read the question carefully and to think about it. You need to think: "Okay, what

are they asking me to do? How many words do I need to write?" And, you know, for

task two: "What kind of essay do I need to write? Are they asking me if I agree

with something? Are they asking me to write about a problem and the solutions

to the problem? Do I need to compare something?" Thinking about these things

in advance will really help you organize your answers.

I found one thing that was really helpful and saved me a lot of time was

having words prepared for the essays; and by that I don't mean memorizing your

answer in advance — you can't really do that. But having many words that mean

"increase", having multiple words that mean "decrease", having multiple words

that mean "more" or "less". These types of words I needed to use a lot for task

one, so actually having them prepped in advance really helped me. I found also

having words to use to compare things and contrast things was really helpful.

So, for example, I used: "in contrast", I used the word "whereas". Just having

these off the top of my head saved me time and made it a lot easier to write.

I also had opinion phrases prepared. So, one of the ones I really like to use is:

"As far as I'm concerned". I used that in my essay. Why did I use that one?

Well, it's a long one; you get many words with just that expression. If

you're trying to reach a word count: "As far as I'm concerned" gives you a lot of

extra words. So, just having different ways to express your opinion is really

helpful. For task one, you often have to compare graphs or you might have to

describe a flow chart, you might have to look at some sort of process and

describe what you're seeing. One of the things many learners make mistakes with

is they explain everything they see, whereas what you really need to do is

you really need to think: "What's the most important information in this

diagram? What's most important?" So, when I was making my outline —

immediately, I thought: "Okay. What am I looking at? What's the most important

things to write about?" And I focused on that. So, always ask yourself: "What

information is the most important to write?" My fifth point: One of the

things that has changed since the last time I took the IELTS is now there is

the possibility of doing it on a computer. I did it the old-fashioned

way, with pen and paper, or pencil and paper. I prefer writing, and I'm a very

slow typer. But if you have trouble writing, if your handwriting is

illegible or it's really messy; it's hard for people to read — it might be an

idea for you to do the IELTS on the computer. So, some testing facilities

will offer you that choice. Know yourself, know your strengths. If you

are better at typing, choose the computer. If you're better at writing

with your hand, like me, then you might want to do it the old-fashioned way. So,

that is what I noticed with the writing component of the IELTS. Now, I'm going

to talk about the speaking part of the IELTS.

So, I have finished the speaking part of the IELTS. It went really well. I was

the very last person to go. So, I can imagine, if that happens to you, it

might be a little bit stressful, because you're just in a room sitting quietly,

thinking; and that can be hard right before a test. In terms of the content,

it was fine. The only thing I think I could have done better is maybe slowed

down. When I'm nervous, I tend to speak faster. So, I wish I had taken more deep

breaths before speaking so I could have controlled my speed. But, otherwise, I

think it went really well. So, you've done three parts of the IELTS. Now,

what's the fourth part? The fourth part is the speaking part. So, let me tell

you a little bit about the speaking part. I was unlucky. Why was I unlucky?

Well, at the beginning of the IELTS, you find out when your speaking interview is

— my interview was the last one scheduled during that day. What did this

mean? Well, the writing part, the listening, and the reading part finished

at noon. I was told my interview was going to be at five pm, so that's a very

long time to have to wait and to think about the test. So, again, this is why

those stress management techniques are so important because if you have a long

time to wait for the test, you can easily get stressed out. So, it's really

important to know how to manage your stress. It's also really important to be

early. I was told my test was going to be at five pm, but it ended up being at

4:20. So, if I had come exactly at five pm, I would have been very late; even

though they said five. They often give you a time, but you often have your

interview a lot earlier. There were many students or many people taking the IELTS

who were really late for the test for the speaking part. So, don't be late; be

early. Smile. When you smile, you become more confident. This was a part of my

plan that I had before taking the test, and I actually smiled during the

interview and it really helped me.

One of the first questions I got during the speaking component was: "Tell me

about your neighborhood", and I had to describe where I lived. The reason I'm

bringing this up is this is not necessarily going to be the question you

get, but you will probably get a: "Tell me about" question. "Tell me about your

family.", "Tell me about your work.", "Tell me about your " — I don't know —

"your hometown". So, the very first questions you often get during the

speaking part of the IELTS are about your own life; they're usually quite

easy questions. And they usually start with: "Tell me about" or they might

start with: "Let's talk about". Here, I have that here: "Let's talk about

community." This was something else I heard during my speaking test, and then

there were a bunch of questions about community. What you need to know is that

the examiners are following a script. So, the conversation isn't a natural

conversation. The examiners say the same thing to everyone, so this can... you

can use this to your advantage, because as soon as I heard: "Let's talk about

community", I felt... I felt good because I knew that we were following

the script and that... I don't know. It helped me with my nerves. So, knowing

what to expect can really help you with even the speaking component of the

IELTS. So, know the script, know the structure. There's three parts to the

speaking component of the IELTS. In the middle part, you pretty much have to

read something. You have one minute to write notes about it, and then you have

to talk about it for one to two minutes. So, I knew that was going to happen, so

I felt comfortable with that. But if you haven't prepared, that can be really

stressful. So, know the test.

Enjoy this part. It's very easy to be very nervous. I think what helped me was

thinking: "Wow. Someone's asking my opinions on these different topics. How

exciting." Even though, deep down, you know, I'd rather not be doing the IELTS

— as you probably don't really want to do a test — pretending that you are

excited to talk about your opinions can really help because you're more likely

to be confident in what you're saying, be comfortable, and show that to the

examiner. So, try to... try to be excited. Think of it as... you know,

your perspective can be: "I get the chance to share my opinions on these

topics with someone — that's exciting." You're marked on multiple things for the

speaking. So, even if you make a mistake — it's not the end of the world. You're

being marked on your pronunciation, you're being marked on, you know, your

organization, your vocabulary. There's different things you're being marked on,

so you don't have to speak perfect English. During my test, I started

getting off track where I started... I started answering a question, and then

my speaking became a bit disorganized. So, then I went back and I just said to

the examiner: "Let me rephrase that." This was a really powerful line. The

reason is: Sometimes you end up going the wrong way and you find yourself not

answering what you're supposed to answer. So, you can always kind of

backtrack by using a phrase, like: "Let me rephrase that", or "Let me start

again." That's okay to do. The final thing I wanted to talk about with the

speaking component of the IELTS is the importance of just breathing. When I'm

nervous, I speak very fast; and sometimes I speak so fast that my voice

is going faster than my thoughts. During the IELTS, I had to tell myself: "Okay,

breathe and slow down." It's not a race. You don't have to speak as fast as you

can. It's better to speak slowly and clearly. Not too slow. You want to speak

at a normal rate. But know yourself, know what your issues are. For me, it's

speaking too fast, so I had to really breathe to make sure I wasn't talking

too quickly.

So, that is what happened to me during the IELTS. I think, overall, I did

really well. Fingers crossed — I got the score I wanted. I find out tomorrow, so

we shall see. Regardless of how you do on the IELTS, I want to say:

Congratulations. It is not an easy test, and it takes a lot of time; it takes

energy it takes preparation. Whether you're a beginner or even an expert user

of English, this test takes time and preparation if you want to do well. So,

congratulations for your effort and your hard work. Thank you for watching this

video. I hope you enjoyed listening to a teacher talk about her experience with

the IELTS. It's a unique perspective, I think. For more information about the

IELTS test, you can check out my channel. I have a lot of different

videos on many different aspects of the IELTS. You can also take our quiz on

some of the topics I talked about here at www.engvid.com just to practice what

you heard. You can also check out my website at www.teacheremma.com. There,

you can find more resources on many different topics. Don't forget to

subscribe to my channel; and when you subscribe, ring the bell to make sure

that you get all the latest videos that we're creating. Thanks, again, for

watching. Good luck on your test; and until next time, take care.